ASUS announced today, at Computex 2008, a new product: its upcoming HDMI-ready sound card. Not only that, but the company also gave a preview for its new product, named Xonar HDAV1.3. The soon-to-come sound card is HDMI 1.3a compliant and it has offloading audio processing from high-definition video capabilities.

The performances of the Xonar HDAV1.3 include the lossless decoding of audio formats from Blu-ray films like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio at 24-bit, 96-192 Khz. The new sound card is PCI Express x1 compliant and it is able to offer 7.1 surround sound.

ASUS uses analog audio with 120db signal-to-noise ratio with a distortion percentage down to a minimum of 0.0004 on all 7.1 channels to ensure an excellent noise reduction. The manufacturer has also integrated a Splendid HD video processor which can handle the video portions of Blu-ray discs. The processor is capable of delivering a clear image form Blu-ray titles all by itself, without loading the CPU of the computer.

The card will probably appeal mostly to those users that own desktop systems which feature neither a high-end CPU, nor a discrete graphics card. They will be able to enjoy Blu-ray movies simply by installing one ASUS card on their computers. The Xonar HDAV1.3 is powered by the ASUS AV200 codec chip which incorporates digital to analog converters. For the first time in the Xonar series, the new card features opamp sockets that allow modifications to customize sound to the individual's liking.

ASUS also announced that it would make available a deluxe version of the Xonar HDAV1.3. Besides having all the features available on the standard card, the deluxe version will also feature a HDAV H6 surround channel expansion card. The company disclosed no information on prices and availability, but, considering that the low end Xonar DX 5.0 sound card costs $89, the new one will probably go high over $100.